On 1/27/2011 6:10 PM, Jean B. wrote:
> Brooklyn1 wrote:
>> On Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:38:56 -0800 (PST), Lenona >
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Pretty amusing.
>>>
>>> Lenona.
>>>
>>> http://www.buffalonews.com/life/colu...icle325123.ece
>>>
>>>
>>> A proper postponement?
>>>
>>> Dear Miss Manners: A few weeks ago, my husband and I invited a couple
>>> who are neighbors to a small cocktail party, just the four of us. They
>>> were supposed to arrive at our house at 6 p.m.
>>>
>>> At 5 p.m. that same evening they called to ask us to postpone this
>>> party until the following night. I replied no and I mentioned that I
>>> had already prepared the food.
>>>
>>> The wife mentioned that the husband had an emergency and could not
>>> make it. I was stunned then, and I’m still stunned today. When I
>>> looked outside, his car was parked in his spot at 6:15 p. m. I don’t
>>> know how to react to this. To me, she should have maybe showed up for
>>> a short time to show us that this reason was legitimate and he could
>>> have joined us later.
>>>
>>> I spoke to her later and she appears like nothing happened and does
>>> not care that we lost hundreds of dollars worth of food and the time
>>> it took us to prepare the party. This has never happened to me in 50
>>> years. I had people cancel the day before, the morning of but never
>>> one hour before. How would Miss Manners react?
>>>
>>> Gentle Reader: With amazement that cocktail food for four people could
>>> cost hundreds of dollars. What were you serving—buckets of caviar?
>>>
>>> The answer is that while your neighbors were wrong to treat the
>>> occasion so lightly, you are treating it rather heavily. Stopping by
>>> for drinks with the neighbors does sound like a casual event that
>>> could easily be postponed, in contrast to an elaborate cocktail party,
>>> which is presumed to involve major preparation and a goodly number of
>>> guests. Had you invited them for dinner perhaps they might have taken
>>> the invitation more seriously.
>>>
>>> But it is open to you to make your point by inquiring sympathetically
>>> about the emergency—is he all right? Is there anything you can do to
>>> help?
>>>
>>> Just please do not admit to spying on his car. This proves nothing, as
>>> he could have been taken away in an ambulance, but is the sign of a
>>> creepy neighbor.
>>
>> What kind of imbecile prepares HUNDREDS of $$$$$ in food for cocktails
>> with two neighbors... were it me all I'd have to do is put the bottles
>> and glasses back in the bar hutch, rewrap a couple three cheeses, and
>> close up two boxes of crackers... I'd have lost a little extra ice but
>> I'd have learned that those neighbors belong on my Do Not Invite
>> Douchebags list.
>
> I, too, was wondering about that "hundreds of dollars". What planet does
> this person live on?
>

Me three. And also, the neighbor gentleman could have been inflicted
with the sort of emergency that requires one to sit on the toilet for a
few hours, but she may have wanted to be delicate about it.

--
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